Wooden Dice

[Woas]

So I guess this area seemed the best place to ask.

I'm planning on making some handcrafted dice for myself and to give as gifts for the holidays or birthdays. I figure I can do casino style hard edge dice well enough but I'm not sure how most of the mass-produced wooden dice get that certain uniform shape. I don't want to sand them by hand cause that would most likely result in uneven edges.

An example of this wooden dice shape that is pretty common:

As you can see the face of each side is actually circular, with each corner rounded off into what I'll call a "soft triangle"... almost like a triskelion. Anyone have any idea how to get that shape or close to it in a uniform matter?

Thanks!

 

[Vail Marston]

I'm no woodworker, but I'm sure this is done with a lathe or the computerized industrial equivalent.

 

[XCorvis]

To me, they look like spheres that have six regular cuts out of them. Start with a sphere and carefully sand down the sides with a belt sander?

Keep in mind that a wooden die will always be a little bit irregular. Wood will have different densities within the same piece and the die's center of gravity could be slightly off, even if you get the sides perfect.

 

[Kafen]

Offhand? Wood shop joke anyone?

I would use these...
http://www.premierwood.com/ImagesCache/3-12-Wood-Dowel-I22357.jpg

Use a flat surface from a straight piece of wood like a high quality 2x6 and lodge the dowel into place on the plank using screws at each end to hold the dowel in place. The goal is to basically attach the dowel to the flat surface as a guide for when you go to do the sanding.

Use one of these - beg and/or borrow one as you see fit...
Amazon.com: - Wilton Combo Bench Belt and Disc Sander, Model# 4002: Home Improvement
The model and make does not matter, but you will want to be able to use the main plank as a guide to establish the first flat surface using the belt sander.

Use the sander to create a flat surface on the dowel at a right angle relative to the guide of the sander. The exact depth of the sanded surface with be relative to the size of the dowel.

The dowel can then be removed from the plank once the first plane has been cut. Rotate the dowel onto the flat surface and sand each face down to match the first cut depth. You do that until the dowel has 4 flat surfaces - four sides of your dice.

That will give you relatively equal grains, rounded corners to personal taste, and weight of wood for the dice.

Once you have the four planes shaped, you can mark the dice for cutting. Mark each die with independent measurements with gaps between each die to create accurate dice. Use a saw of your choice to out the dice.

The edges of the cut dice will have to be hand sanded to match the rounded edges of the dowel edges, but a Dremel tool should be able to handle that without any issue.

That would be my best bet, anyways.

 

[Woas]

Thanks for all the tips thus far.
I'm almost complete with my first round of trial dice. I have a bunch of really nice hardwood oak, maple an soon cherry wood stock from trees that I fell in my back yard over the years that I am using. I have gotten them down to cubes and decided I like the more squared off, cubish dice shape so have skipped over the heavily rounded edges for more of a casino-style look (the dice are 3/4", the same size as a standard casino die). They are coming along nicely.
I am burning pips into some with a hobby woodburner pen. Others I have flattened the tip of a finishing nail down and have been giving that a whack or three per pip to make very shallow indented pips to fill with some paint.